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A chat with Mike McVey

So while at GenCon, I got to talk with the man, himself, Mr. Mike McVey, about how things have been progressing since the finish of the phenomenal conclusion of his Sedition Wars Kickstarter.

When asked about the Kickstarter event, Mike said that they were the longest days of his life. Every day he would continually be blown away by the support. Never in his wildest dreams would he ever think that the project would have gone as far as it did. He said there were was what he’d hoped they would get, then what he was excited that he would get, and then what he would dream he would get, and the project blew beyond even that.

Talking about the the product they were able to create with such funds available, Mike said that he always makes sure that quality is number 1 in everything he makes. When he produces a model, his name is right there on it, and so if it’s bad, then everyone can see who is to blame. As such, at even the base funding level, he wanted to have a top-notch product for the consumers. With the added funds, he was able to make an even better product. He is always proud of the final models he puts out.

When asked about what he thought had made the kickstarter so successful, the first response was that he was prepared. He wanted to thank the team behind the look of the Kickstarter and for all the planning that went into the campaign right from the start. They had pre-created a lot of the stretch goals, he confessed that with the rapid rise in funding, the last few were sort of on-the-spot creations. The next was that the product was an already finished thing, for the most part. With this in place, the project could show off actual models and actual components of gameplay right away. Contributors were not being asked to fund a fuzzy idea or a concept, but a real game ready to be put into their hands. It gave a sense of knowing their money would be put to use on something they could already evaluate in some way. Finally, there was an emphasis on listening to the community. There was active involvement with the comments from the project as well as looking out on the web where the project was being discussed and actually engaging with those that might have had questions or suggestions. While there was a finished product, they were flexible to make changes where they were called for.

Switching gears, we talked for a bit about what brought about the idea of having Sedition Wars as a board game. For that, it was all about being self-contained. There are a lot of skirmish games out there already, and asking gamers to accept another would be possibly rather difficult. So instead, the idea of having an all-inclusive product, where everything necessary to get immersed in the world and fight your friends in a great setting would be right there. There was talk, though, of looking into making a tablet-top minis game based on the Sedition Wars universe. So we hope to hear more about that.

Looking to the future, they are already working on expansions for the game. The huge success of the campaign meant that the lead-up time until the first expansion has been cut down. So look for more on that coming soon.

Finally, Mike wanted to really say thank you to everyone out there that helped the campaign. He simply could not stress enough how grateful he was to those that supported the game. You helped make a product he was already proud of into something truly astonishing.